Follow Us

Most Popular Posts

5 New Years Resolutions For The New Semester

Can you believe how quickly 2012 flew by? The world didn’t end on December 21, so we do have a future to look forward to. And that is 2013. We all know the typical resolutions – eat healthier, exercise more, budget yourself better, yadda yadda yadda. While most of those resolutions are broken by February 1, here are some that you can stick to when it comes to your education.

Go Back to School!

If you planned on “taking a year off” after high school, yet a few years later you still find yourself working full-time, in a rut that makes it tough to get back into the school routine, there’s no better time than the present (or the start of a new year!) to get back to school. College graduates make, on average, 12,000 more dollars a year than non-grads do. Start slow if you have to. Take a class here and there, or attend night school. If you ease back into it, it’ll make the transition a lot easier.

Don’t Procrastinate

Procrastination. The college student’s excuse for everything. A while back I wrote about ways to catch up with classwork by the end of the semester when you spent the past two months putting it off. While I may have given some fantastic advice, some better advice is just don’t put yourself in that position. Don’t go to that party if you have a paper due the next day. Don’t skip class when you have an assignment due, just so you can give yourself the extra time to finish. There are enough hours in the day to get everything done, if you use your time wisely.

Avoid All-Nighters

Sometimes it seems as if an all-nighter is the only way that you’ll be able to get everything you need to get done done. Students across the country are abusing Adderall, a prescription drug used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, to be stimulated enough to stay up all night to get their work done. Others use coffee, energy drinks, or Five Hour Energy. Here’s a better idea. Get to sleep. Utilize your time better to get your work done during the day, and get as much sleep as you can at night. You’ll feel better during the day, and the quality of your work will improve. Your body and grades will thank you.

Set Goals

It’s easier to work hard when you have goals to reach for. You’ll also be even more proud of yourself when you do reach them. Be sure to make them specific, like “I want to raise my GPA by two points this semester,” or “I want to pull off a B+ in this class.” You also want to make your goals challenging, but attainable. You don’t want to discourage yourself by making a goal so difficult that you just give up.

Have Fun

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” wrote Stephen King.

The same goes for you! Your education is obviously at the top of your list of priorities, but if all your life consists of is routine, you’ll crash and burn. Make sure that there’s more going on than just class, studying, work, sleep. Make time to go out with friends, go to the movies or read a book. Try setting aside a “me” day. Have all of that junk that lurks in the back of your mind that you have to get done by a certain day of the week, so you can spend that whole day relaxing and doing the things that you enjoy.

What are some of the ways you plan to make this semester your best?

Related Posts

Carmen Bojanowski

Carmen Bojanowski is a senior at Eastern Michigan University, double majoring in journalism and communications. She writes for her college newspaper, mostly covering local bands and interns at 89x, a metro-Detroit radio station. She frequents the movie theater and when she has free time, she likes spend it with her friends. Carmen hopes to one day be a music journalist.